Medtronic: 39 years of dividend boosts

Thanks to today’s dividend, my 33rd of the month, I’ve inched my way past the $20 mark – $20.07 to be exact – for October.

Yeah, I know … small potatoes. I’ve received more than $20 each of the last seven months and hope to regularly double that number here in the next month or so.

Still, $20 is nothing to sneeze at considering I didn’t earn my first dividend until this year. It takes time to build a solid foundation. Believe me, I know … 10 months into the year and I’m still working on doing just that.

Here’s a closer look at today’s dividend:

Medtronic

Medtronic (MDT) passed along a $0.46 dividend for the one share I own.

It was my third payment from the medical technology company which works toward alleviating pain, restoring health and extending life for millions of people around the world. My first came back in April … it was for $0.43. The second, which was for the same amount as today’s, came in July.

Medtronic has been sitting in my Dividend Farm since February, when I picked up a share for $76. It’s value has gone up and down since then, getting as high as $89.72 at one point. Today’s price is about $10 less than that, but still equates to a $3.01 gain (3.96%) since purchase.

Medtronic, based in Dublin (Ireland), has quite a bit going for it right now. Its P/E ratio is kind of high compared to some of the companies in my portfolio (26.38), but I like its profit margin (13.75%) and relatively low debt-to-capital ratio (38.96%). I’m also a fan of the fact it grew its EPS 12.12% last quarter verses the same quarter from 2016.

The company’s $1.84 annualized dividend is decent, too … and getting better all the time. Medtronic has boosted its dividend for 39 straight years, most recently by an average of 8.29% each of the last five.